Subject:Using SF9 in Sonar 8 PE

Posted by: glen55

Date:6/15/2009 3:30:52 PM

I have read and heard that Sound Forge 9 is supposed to show up in the Tools Menu in Sonar and that the plug-ins are supposed to be available as VST plug-ins in Sonar. However, this is not the case for me. SF9 works fine as a stand-alone application, but Sonar does not seem to be aware it exists. I have tried scanning for plug-ins multiple times since installing SF9, and no dice.

This is my first post here, and I checked the box about showing system information, but whatever info is displayed here is wrong because I am posting this from work. At home I am running 64-bit Vista on a 2.4 ghz dual Intel processor with 4 gb memory, and I am using a Cakewalk SPS-66 sound card (identical to the Edirol FA-66).

Any ideas? I ran this through the Cakewalk forum and got a bunch of answers that didn't help at all. I didn't find anyone else who seemed to be having the same problem.

Subject:RE: Using SF9 in Sonar 8 PE

Reply by: Steven Myers

Date:6/15/2009 7:39:42 PM

You can do it through the registry, or you can download this free utility that will do it -- plua other useful things.
http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/download.asp?ID=66

Subject:RE: Using SF9 in Sonar 8 PE

Reply by: jackn2mpu

Date:6/16/2009 5:21:28 AM

tididit said:
You can do it through the registry, or you can download this free utility that will do it -- plua other useful things.
www.digifreq.com/digifreq/download.asp?ID=66

I replied (why can't we have a quote function?):
This is the same thing glen55 was told over in the Sonar forum. I just checked my installation of Sonar 8.3.1 and Soundforge 9 is under the tools menu and the SF plugs are available when I right-click in the effects box of an audio track. As I recall I didn't have to do anything fancy to get them to show there other than having SF show in the Sonar Tools menu. Which apparently glen55 has done.

One thing that does come to mind to check is if in the Sonar plugin manager the SF plugs are in an excluded list. It can happen. And as someone said over in the Sonar forum, the Izotope Mastering Bundle is not available in Sonar, just as the Lexicon reverb in Sonar Producer is not available for use outside Sonar (licensing issues).

Jack

Subject:RE: Using SF9 in Sonar 8 PE

Reply by: Steven Myers

Date:6/16/2009 6:28:30 AM

This is from the distant past, so I'm not sure of the details:
When external editors didn't show up under SONAR Tools, it usually had something to do with the order in which the editor and SONAR were installed.
I probably have forgotten because the work-arounds make it a non-issue.

Caveat: I have no experience with Vista. And doesn't a 64-bit system make most audio plug-ins useless?

Subject:RE: Using SF9 in Sonar 8 PE

Reply by: glen55

Date:6/16/2009 2:30:59 PM

Thanks for the replies.

I think it may have something to do with old installs and the registry. When I run Sonar Utils the "owner" of Sonar is listed as a guy I purchased Sonar Power Studio from on E-bay when I was just getting started and didn't understand the Cakewalk licensing rules, and before I purchased the licensed copy of Producer I now own.

I don't find any documentation for Sonar Utils anywhere, and I don't know how to change that. By the way, Sonar Utils tells me that SF9 is already in the Tools menu. . . .

I am also concerned about tididit's question about a 64-bit engine making plug-ins useless, but I'm certainly using a lot of plug-ins that ship with Sonar, plus a few outside plug-ins like BFD and Pod Farm.

Which brings up kind of a long story and vague because I don't remember it too well, but it might contain some crucial info: at some point before I got SF9 I purchased Audio Studio, installed it, and all the Audio Studio plug-ins were all right there as audio effects on the Sonar plug-in menu.

Here's the vague part: at about the same time I was trying really hard to get that Sonar Power Studio software registered and/or possibly it was about that time that I got Producer and installed it. Anyway, one way or another, I have a feeling I uninstalled and reinstalled Sonar a time or three. And after that, suddenly the Audio Studio plug-ins did not show up in Sonar any more, and they never did again. (Eventually I uninstalled Audio Studio.) I expect they went into the same limbo the SF9 plug-ins are in.

I have seen the digifreq page about changing the registry. Only thing is, I think it was written for XP or something, because when I tried it the very first step did not work the way it was described. I don't consider myself a "power user" of Windows, so I generally don't go haring around changing the registry as I please.

If somebody who knows their way around a registry should tell me that the instructions on that page are still valid, I'd be more inclined to try to use it to manually add SF9. Tips or links on safely editing registries could be useful, too.

Anyway, I've got four songs down and pretty much mixed and I sure would like to be able to use some SF9 functions on them without having to export them as audio files.

Thanks to anyone who has read this lengthy treatise. Thanks even more for any suggestions anyone can offer.

Subject:RE: Using SF9 in Sonar 8 PE

Reply by: jackn2mpu

Date:6/17/2009 4:29:44 AM

Glen:
You don't have to export a file out of Sonar to work with it in Soundforge. All you have to do, being that you have Soundforge showing in your Sonar Tools menu is to select the track you want in Sonar, click on Soundforge in the Sonar Tools menu, SF opens, and you can work on the file in SF. Save the file from inside SF (just make sure SF is saving the file where the file actually resides as SF has the nasty habit of saving a file in the last folder used to save a file which is not necessarily the folder the file you are actually working on). Just to be sure the file shows correctly in Sonar, save the Sonar project, close the project, and then re-open it in Sonar. This is done so that visually the file looks right in Sonar.

As to the instructions you are referring to, I don't see any on the page linked to earlier in this thread. There's a description of what Sonar Utils can do and a link to download the .exe file. Please explain exactly what you are referring to.

And have you looked in the Sonar plug-in manager to see if the Soundforge plugs are excluded? Over on the left side of the plug-in manager window as you go through the various plug-in categories there are buttons that allow one to show what plugs are included or excluded. It could be that the SF plugs are excluded. SF plugs are dx not VST.

Subject:RE: Using SF9 in Sonar 8 PE

Reply by: glen55

Date:6/17/2009 8:04:51 AM

I think you missed the part where I said that SF9 is not showing up in the Tools menu. Perhaps my statement that Sonar Utils SAYS it's in the Tools menu was confusing.

However, you are right that the page I linked to doesn't talk about editing the registry. That was me getting confused with the conversation I had about this subject on the Cakewalk website, where Scott Garrigus suggested Sonar Utils and linked to this page - http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/article.asp?ID=2 - which is the page I was thinking about with the instructions for editing the registry to put SF9 on the tools menu.

Assuming I ever get this thing working, though, those look like some good tips for file-handling.

Also, although I have thoroughly scoured the plug-in manager page, I didn't fully understand everything and I do NOT recall seeing, or looking for, buttons showing included/excluded plugs. I'll give that a look tonight.

Thanks for your reply.

Subject:RE: Using SF9 in Sonar 8 PE

Reply by: Steven Myers

Date:6/17/2009 10:14:11 AM

Just for the heck of it, I just now installed SONAR 6 (64-bit version) and SONAR Util on a machine running the Win7 (64-bit) beta.
SONAR Util runs, but will not change anything in that environment. So I uninstalled it.

Because it was installed after Sound Forge and iZotope RX, SONAR does not see them.

So on to the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | SOFTWARE | Cakewalk Music Software | Tools Menu
Right-click Tools Menu. Choose New | Key. Name the key.
Highlight the key. In the right pane, right-click and choose New | String Value. Do this three more times.
Then name each string value as shown in this screen shot. Name them exactly as shown! No spaces in the names!
Right-click each Name and choose Modify. The data in ExePath must be exact, wherever the *.exe file is on your system. No quotation marks, nothing extra!
Type data must be WaveEditor. (if this is not done correctly, the external editor will run, but the audio won't be in it!)
(You can put in whatever data you dang well please when you Modify the other ones.)

Subject:RE: Using SF9 in Sonar 8 PE

Reply by: glen55

Date:6/17/2009 11:06:12 AM

Tididit, if you're a girl, will you marry me? If you're a dude (or a girl who for some inexplicable reason does not wish to marry me), can I send you a bottle of something nice? (That is, if your suggestion works. . . .)

I really appreciate the screen shot - that's a huge improvement over that digifreq page that just tells you to use the name of the program, which left me with a lot of questions and uncertainty.

By the way, I never had a bootleg Sound Forge! I once had a copy of Sonar bought on Ebay that MAY have been bootleg, and that could be the root of these problems.

I'm a bit more savvy about buying software from Ebay now. I ALWAYS send the seller an e-mail before buying to ask if the software is registerable. If s/he says yes, and it's a lie, I should be able to get my money back. Trust me, I a take a serious attitude toward my home studio and never had even the slightest intention to fly a pirate flag over the software it runs on. I'm a lawyer, by the way, in my other life, so I have some concept of the troubles that can crop up when you try to run a business that way.

I'm at work now, but I'll give this a shot tonight and report back tomorrow. Thanks again.

Subject:RE: Using SF9 in Sonar 8 PE

Reply by: Steven Myers

Date:6/17/2009 11:41:01 AM

I will be surprised if it doesn't work. The procedure is exactly the same for XP/SONAR 6 (32-bit) and Win7/SONAR6 (64-). I'm confident in guessing that Vista (the new ME) is the same. Unlike a lot of the registry, there's nothing cryptic here.

Thanks for the offer, but I'm fairly sure I'm not a girl, so the answer probably is no. In honor of my Hungarian ancestors, a bottle of gasoline (87 octane OK!) corked with an old pair of JCPenney jockey shorts would be nice. Just leave a few inches of the shorts danging.

I apologize for the bootleg Sound Forge remark.

The Tools Menu in SONAR is a must-have. I wish SCS would add the ability to choose from a list of audio editors when I right-click on an audio clip in Vegas. As it is, we have to drill all the way down into Options|Preferences|Audio every time we want to change it ... which can happen often.

Subject:RE: Using SF9 in Sonar 8 PE

Reply by: glen55

Date:6/17/2009 11:49:19 AM

I'll even throw in a match. (All imaginary, of course, since you didn't provide your address or real name (which is probably an excellent idea when dealing with unknown internet personages. . .)).

And no apologies necessary. My whole confused-registry story definitely suggests the skull and crossbones approach to software, but it just ain't so.

Thanks again.

Subject:RE: Using SF9 in Sonar 8 PE

Reply by: glen55

Date:6/18/2009 11:12:28 AM

Yep, that worked like a champ. Thanks again.

Now the next issue, which may or may not be related. Why don't the SF9 plug-ins show up when I insert an audio effect? When I first installed Audio Studio way back when those plug-ins showed up fine - when I used Insert Effect, I had a whole category of effects under "Sony" - before I went through the whole Sonar install/reinstall process that seems to have mixed things up. After that, the Audio Studio plugs never showed up again, and the SF9 plugs have never shown at all.